Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Groundwater is increasingly seen as crucial to both agricultural and domestic water supply in sub-Saharan Africa. Citing climate change and growing populations, there is especially a notable shift towards promoting groundwater for irrigation to ensure food security. Increased use of the resource wil...
| Autores principales: | , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
2024
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152223 |
| _version_ | 1855542949960482816 |
|---|---|
| author | Bont, Chris de Börjeson, Lowe |
| author_browse | Bont, Chris de Börjeson, Lowe |
| author_facet | Bont, Chris de Börjeson, Lowe |
| author_sort | Bont, Chris de |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Groundwater is increasingly seen as crucial to both agricultural and domestic water supply in sub-Saharan Africa. Citing climate change and growing populations, there is especially a notable shift towards promoting groundwater for irrigation to ensure food security. Increased use of the resource will undoubtedly be accompanied with new questions of governance, with groundwater overexploitation in other parts of the world functioning as a strong cautionary tale. This article provides an overview of the current groundwater governance literature on sub-Saharan Africa. Using a critical water governance lens we analyse how groundwater governance is framed, what terms, categories, and measurements are used to describe and assess groundwater governance, and whose perspectives are considered. We also assess whether groundwater governance research has taken place across sub-Saharan African countries in a balanced way. We find that groundwater governance research in sub-Saharan Africa, even more so than elsewhere, ignores the voices and perspectives of those physically encountering the resource. Instead, it is dominated by the views of formal, technical groundwater experts focusing on the need for more hydrogeological data and formal policies. While the existing contributions to the literature are valuable, the current bias in perspectives calls for others to join the field of groundwater governance and to supplement current conceptualisations and approaches with those of users and others dealing with groundwater management on a daily basis. We argue that groundwater users’ practical governance experiences, locally adapted solutions and knowledges, can add important complementary perspectives and insights towards crafting effective, sustainable and equitable groundwater governance processes across the continent. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace152223 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press, Ltd. |
| publisherStr | Ubiquity Press, Ltd. |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1522232025-12-08T10:29:22Z Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa Bont, Chris de Börjeson, Lowe governance groundwater irrigation research Groundwater is increasingly seen as crucial to both agricultural and domestic water supply in sub-Saharan Africa. Citing climate change and growing populations, there is especially a notable shift towards promoting groundwater for irrigation to ensure food security. Increased use of the resource will undoubtedly be accompanied with new questions of governance, with groundwater overexploitation in other parts of the world functioning as a strong cautionary tale. This article provides an overview of the current groundwater governance literature on sub-Saharan Africa. Using a critical water governance lens we analyse how groundwater governance is framed, what terms, categories, and measurements are used to describe and assess groundwater governance, and whose perspectives are considered. We also assess whether groundwater governance research has taken place across sub-Saharan African countries in a balanced way. We find that groundwater governance research in sub-Saharan Africa, even more so than elsewhere, ignores the voices and perspectives of those physically encountering the resource. Instead, it is dominated by the views of formal, technical groundwater experts focusing on the need for more hydrogeological data and formal policies. While the existing contributions to the literature are valuable, the current bias in perspectives calls for others to join the field of groundwater governance and to supplement current conceptualisations and approaches with those of users and others dealing with groundwater management on a daily basis. We argue that groundwater users’ practical governance experiences, locally adapted solutions and knowledges, can add important complementary perspectives and insights towards crafting effective, sustainable and equitable groundwater governance processes across the continent. 2024 2024-09-13T16:46:15Z 2024-09-13T16:46:15Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152223 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136518 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1347 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1316 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1317 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1363 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1350 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1313 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1323 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1322 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1336 https://thecommonsjournal.org/collections/governgroundwater Open Access Ubiquity Press, Ltd. de Bont, Chris; and Börjeson, Lowe. 2024. Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of the Commons 18(1): 82–93. https://doi. org/10.5334/ijc.1313 |
| spellingShingle | governance groundwater irrigation research Bont, Chris de Börjeson, Lowe Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title | Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_full | Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_fullStr | Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_short | Policy over practice: A review of groundwater governance research in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_sort | policy over practice a review of groundwater governance research in sub saharan africa |
| topic | governance groundwater irrigation research |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152223 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bontchrisde policyoverpracticeareviewofgroundwatergovernanceresearchinsubsaharanafrica AT borjesonlowe policyoverpracticeareviewofgroundwatergovernanceresearchinsubsaharanafrica |